PECULIARITIES OF THE NEW ZEALAND PIANO MARKET

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 87, 18 January 1950, Page 8

PECULIARITIES OF THE NEW ZEALAND PIANO MARKET

If you have £IOO to spare and v a young hopeful wanting to learn to Dlay the piano, the chances are that by exercising a little patience you’ll he able to pick up a reasonably good instrument, albeit 30 years old or so, within a few weeks. If, on the other hand, your bank manager is muttering about the overdraft and you wish to sell your pre-war Hohenstaufen - Schwartz - burger or whatever it may be, at a price representing its real value, say £l5O, you are f likely to wait anxiously for a buyer, for some time.

Second-hand pianos are a pretty problem today for both buyer and Seller, depending on how much the one has to sßend and for what the other feels he can let' a cherished instrument go. Shortage And Glut

Unlike the second-hand car market, where anything on four wheels will still sell readily, the secondhand piano' market is experiencing a shortage in • some categories and a glut in others. Dealers feel the pinch most. were well under control from the dealer’s angle until the appreciation of the £N.Z. New instruments were £2OO plus, and sec-ond-hand ones nicely graded according to scale. Removal of the 25 per cent, represented a big drop in piano prices, some now selling for as little as £l5O.

But there are a lot of people who won’t spend £l5O on a piano; their limit is generally around £IOO cash, and there is a brisk market in this price-bracket. Plenty in the “suitable for learners” class, veterans of 60 ox 70 winters which still fetch up to £4O or £SO, but few of the medium - priced instruments so many parents are chasing.